Loando's coach, teacher and aunt, Sabrina Matsumoto, remembers when Loando first began to compete as a rider in the keiki rodeo at age 3. It was a near-perfect fit.

"She was always interested in riding bareback, always swinging a rope, always wants to go faster, and never gave up," Matsumoto said. "Even if she got bucked off, she got right back on. Most kids will not; they will be terrified."

"It got even down to where she used to sleep in her rodeo clothes because she didn't want to be left behind."

That started because as a little girl Loando was not an early riser, and the stock roping events at rodeos often started at 8 a.m. That meant the family had to be on the road at the crack of dawn.

To make sure she was included, at age 6 or 7 Loando began going to bed in her jeans, buckle and cowboy shirt the night before competitions. Family members would grab her boots and hat, and her teacher and grandfather, Roy Loando Sr., would carry the determined little girl to the truck.

Jaymie Loando was first thrown from a horse at about age 4 in the family's dusty practice arena just off Mamalahoa Highway above Kalaoa in North Kona.

Years of work, practice and competition sharpened her skills. Now finished with her freshman year at Kealakehe High School, Loando works four or five times a year herding livestock in Hawaiian Home Lands in Waimea or elsewhere in Kohala to help family or friends, outings that are often an opportunity to get together with friends who also ride and compete in rodeos.

"Usually all my friends go when we go drive cattle in the mountains," she said, which involves herding grown animals and branding calves.

During rodeo season, there is practice and then more practice. "It can get tiring sometimes, but if I know it's a big rodeo, then I will do it," she said. "I have no choice, I have to practice."

Loando has won 30 belt buckles and four saddles in rodeo competitions over the years, and was named Cowgirl of the Year four times in the Big Island Keiki Rodeo competition.

Going into high school association finals at Parker Ranch Arena in Waimea this year, Loando said she was aiming for the Rookie of the Year award, and thought she had a shot.

She won not only Rookie of the Year, but also All-Around Cowgirl for earning the most combined points in the barrel race and five other events.

Next to barrel racing — her strongest event — she favors team roping, a timed event in which two riders work as partners, with one roping the head of a cow and the other roping the heels.

If she has a weak spot, it is goat tying, a timed event in which a rider races at a dead run toward a goat tied in the arena, leaps out of the saddle, knocks the goat down and ties its legs. The difficulty, Loando said, is in throwing herself off of a galloping horse to get to the goat.

In the Mainland competition that begins July 19, Jaymie will compete in team roping, barrel racing and breakaway, a timed event in which the rider chases and ropes a cow.

Beverly Kanda, Loando's grandmother, said the family is about three-quarters of the way to its fund-raising goal of $3,500 for the trip. The clan has been collecting donations, selling homemade smoked meat, and has held a car wash in Kailua.

Matsumoto, who also went to the national finals in 1992 and 1993, has been coaching Loando. More than 1,600 contestants are expected this year from 39 states, Canada and Australia.

"You can't compare the competitions from there to here," said Matsumoto of the Mainland events. "It's just a bigger thing for them on the Mainland, and they're out for the gun, and they ride top-of-the-line horses."

Loando will be somewhat at a disadvantage when she goes up against Mainland competitors who have their own mounts. Loando's main barrel racer, a mare named Sugar, and the other horses she usually rides will stay home.

Instead, Loando will rent horses for the Wyoming competition, arriving a few days early to work with separate mounts for the barrel racing, breakaway and dally team roping.

"To me, it's just do your best," Matsumoto advises. "The competition is stiff up there, but just do your best and I think she has a shot. She's a very good rider, and her roping has in the past years progressed a lot."